


Costumes and Cookies

by nachocheese26



Series: The Gangsitter [5]
Category: Good Girls (TV)
Genre: Dean is literal trash, F/M, Rio is done with suburban moms, except Beth, obligatory Halloween fic, she doesn't count
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-20
Updated: 2019-10-20
Packaged: 2020-12-24 13:55:14
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,954
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21100568
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nachocheese26/pseuds/nachocheese26
Summary: “I’ll take ‘em trick-or-treatin’. I was just leavin’ with Marcus anyways.”“Rio, you don’t have-““I bet there’s some lil’ old ladies too that give away full-sized candy bars, right?”“Yeah, down on Hickory Drive…”“I’ll be there in fifteen.”





	Costumes and Cookies

**Author's Note:**

> You know I had to do a Halloween fic!

“But Daddy, you _have _to wear a costume!”

“How many years have we been doin’ this? Six, three of them you probably don’t even remember. But how many times can you remember me wearin’ a costume?”

Marcus narrowed his eyes and crossed his arms. “None.”

“So do you think I’m gonna be wearin’ a costume this year?” Rio asked as he pulled on his beanie and grabbed his keys.

“But _Daddy_-!”

“Nope.” Rio placed a hand on Marcus’ shoulder and began guiding him to the front door. “Besides, if you waited for me to get a costume together, all the good candy’s gonna be gone. You wanna get stuck with those weird strawberry wrapper candies?”

Marcus shook his head, picking up his pace as they walked out of the loft.

As they walked down the stairs, Rio’s phone started ringing. He pulled it out and saw Elizabeth’s name flashing.

He tried thinking of a reason why she could be calling him. There weren’t any upcoming drops, the cleaned cash wasn’t due for another week, and they weren’t currently dealing with any rotten eggs for the moment at least.

Rio still decided to answer the phone though. “What’s up?”

_“Rio! Can you please, please, please come over?!”_

That definitely was not Beth. It was Danny. “Kind of busy actually. Everything good?”

Marcus turned around to look at Rio. He shook his head. “No Daddy. Please don’t go to work,” he whispered, tugging on Rio’s hand as they walked down the final flight of stairs.

Rio held up a finger, motioning for Marcus to stop while he listened to what Danny was saying.

_“It's because Daddy said he was going to take us trick-or-treating, but then he said that he can’t anymore and Mommy said that she already had plans this evening and now they’re arguing and it’s going to be too late to go by the time they stop or they might even argue the whole night and then we won’t even get to go trick-or-treating.”_

Rio held back a groan at Danny’s long explanation. “And what do you want me to do about it?” He had a rule that he would not get into the middle of arguments between Elizabeth and her stupid ex-husband when it came to the kids.

For the most part, he had managed to keep that rule.

_“Well…can you come take us trick-or-treating?”_

Rio unlocked his car as they made it into the parking garage. Marcus ran to it, opening the backdoor and buckling himself into his seat. Rio got in as well, putting on his seatbelt and sticking the keys in the ignition.

But he didn’t turn on the car.

Rio blew out a deep breath. “Let me talk to your mama.”

He could hear shuffling on the other end, then Beth and Dean’s voices getting louder with every second.

“Daddy, are we still going?” Marcus asked quietly.

“Yeah, just give me a minute,” Rio said, glancing at him through the rear-view mirror.

Then he heard Danny talking again.

_“Mommy? Rio wants to talk to you.”_

_“Oh, so that’s what you had planned?! I can’t believe you!”_

_“I didn’t have _anything_ planned with him! And it shouldn’t even matter because you said you were taking the kids trick-or-treating tonight!”_

_‘Ha! You didn’t have anything planned with him?! Then why’s he calling you?!”_

_“I called him.”_

The yelling went quiet and for a moment, Rio thought he might’ve lost connection.

But then he heard Dean again.

_“_You _called him, Danny?”_

_“Yeah? But now he wants to talk to Mommy.”_

_“Go upstairs, honey.” _Beth’s voice sounded closer and Rio assumed she had taken the phone. He could still faintly hear Dean in the background, but the words weren’t clear anymore. _“Hello?”_

“I’ll take ‘em,” Rio said.

_“What?”_

“I’ll take ‘em trick-or-treatin’. I was just leavin’ with Marcus anyways.”

_“Rio, you don’t have-“_

“I bet there’s some lil’ old ladies too that give away full-sized candy bars, right?”

_“Yeah, down on Hickory Drive…”_

“I’ll be there in fifteen.”

Rio hung up before Beth could continue trying to argue with him.

He finally turned on the car and looked over at Marcus. “We gonna check out a new place and pick up the Boland crew. That okay?”

Marcus’ face lit up as he smiled and nodded.

* * *

When Rio pulled up to the Boland residence, he checked the surrounding area for Dean’s car. He honestly did not want to deal with car man’s shit right now.

Thankfully, Dean wasn’t there.

Rio got out, with Marcus skipping after him and explaining what candies he was planning on eating first and the organizational system he was planning on putting them in.

They didn’t even get to the front steps before the door swung up and Jane was launching herself into Rio’s arms.

“You’re here!”

Rio spluttered a little, loose feathers from Jane’s bird costume getting into his mouth. “”Course I am,” Rio said, letting Jane hug him before setting her down.

“Mommy! Rio’s here! We’re leaving already!” Jane yelled, sticking her head back in the house, then grabbing Marcus hand and marching down the driveway.

“Hang on, we ain’t leavin’ yet,” Rio called out, stopping them before they could get any further.

And as he looked at them, he couldn’t help his small smirk. Jane, in her bird costume and Marcus in his Amazon rain forest explorer outfit.

It was as if they had planned this on purpose.

The three other kids came running out, all talking at once, explaining their costumes, what houses they needed to hit first for the best candy and if they hurried, they could make it to the haunted house on Hickory Drive.

Beth stood behind them, rubbing her arm and looking at Rio hesitantly.

Rio could still pick up the simmering fury in her eyes though, left over from the argument between her and Dean.

“I hope this didn’t mess up any plans you had with Marcus,” Beth said, glancing at Marcus who was listening intently to Jane as she explained the route they would be taking to get the best candy.

Rio shrugged his shoulders. “Marcus don’t mind so long as he gets candy.”

And Beth opened her mouth to most likely spew off some kind of long-winded explanation, but Rio shook his head and cut her off. “Don’t worry ‘bout it, ma. I’ll bring ‘em back in a little bit.”

Beth gave them all quick hugs and made them promise that they were going to behave and not run off. She also made sure to specifically make Kenny and Danny promise her that they weren’t going to scare the younger kids.

Rio herded them all together, walking with them down the driveway and shaking his head as Beth called out a few last minute instructions. He turned, walking backwards to look at her. “I watched ‘em for almost twenty-four hours while you were puking. Think I can manage tonight.

Beth huffed and Rio smirked, giving her a mock-salute and turning back around to walk with the kids.

Kenny led the way, having done this the most and knowing the neighborhood route by heart. They went from house to house, knocking on the front door and holding out their plastic buckets.

“Oh my! How scary! What’s everyone supposed to be?” An older man asked as he put candy in the buckets.

The kids began shouting who they were. Kenny saying he was a zombie that decided to go vegan and that’s why he covered in green juice instead of blood. Danny was a dinosaur/dragon hybrid, Emma was a ballerina who was running for president. Marcus was _not_ a safari explorer, he was an Amazon rain forest explorer because the Amazon was in big trouble and needed to be saved.

Rio smirked as the older man stared at Marcus for a moment, nodding along to his descriptive explanation. Rio was proud to say that Marcus came up with that all on his own.

“Oh, and you must be a cute little bird!” The man said as he looked over at Jane.

But Jane shook her head. “No, I’m Johnny.”

The man tilted his head. “Johnny? I haven’t heard about that cartoon from my grandkids yet.”

Jane shook her head again, this time a little indignantly. “It’s not from a cartoon,” she said as if this man should already know. “He lives on Rio’s neck!”

Rio bit the inside of his cheek to keep from laughing at the man’s expression as he looked to Rio, who was standing in his driveway, to Jane, then back to Rio.

And Rio wouldn’t be surprised if the man was holding back from asking if they were all right.

Marcus always got that question when they were at the stores. And Marcus always responded with a wide smile and a nod. He’d then proceed to ask if they were all right and that would throw them off.

But the kids just grabbed their candy, thanked him, and continued on to the next house.

A few times, Rio even ended up standing on the doorstep with the kids. Either Marcus or Jane would be holding his hand and instead of letting go once they reached the driveway of the new house, they would continue holding on and pull him with them to knock on the door.

He was always met with wary looks, but the kids didn’t notice.

Well, for a second, Rio thought that maybe Kenny did. When the woman opened the door, her smile was bright, but then she caught sight of Rio and it faltered. Rio just continued looking at her with an uninterested stare and didn’t react.

But Kenny tilted his head a little, looking back and forth between Rio and the woman.

The day would come when each of them would realize that Rio didn’t fit into ‘normal’ society. He would always be looked at differently and with suspicion. And while he didn’t blame people for this (he did almost always have a gun on him or at least in his car) he knew it might take a while for the kids to understand.

When they reached that point of course.

He gave Kenny a few months before he reached that point.

Hickory Drive was their last stop. The best street in the entire neighborhood because not only did the majority of the people give out full-sized candy bars, but there was a haunted house at the end of the street and it looked like they had time and could go in.

“I don’t want to go into the haunted house,” Marcus whispered as he tugged a little on Rio’s sleeve to make sure he was heard.

“Me either,” Jane threw in.

“Then we’ll wait out here for ‘em.” Rio checked his watch, calculated how long it would take them to walk back to the house, then threw in an extra hour for bedtime because there was so much candy and they would definitely be eating them on the way home because there were five of them and one of him and he couldn’t watch them all at once.

They would be in bed around eleven.

Thank God it was a Friday night.

“You got ten minutes,” Rio said, looking at all of them, but directing his gaze mainly towards Kenny. He was the oldest and he would be in charge of keeping track of the time.

The three nodded their heads enthusiastically before running off to go explore the haunted house.

While waiting, Rio leaned against a tree and Marcus and Jane ran around on the sidewalk, playing a quick game of tag while trying not to drop any of their candy.

“Can you watch our candy?” Marcus asked before they started their game, holding his pumpkin pail up with a hopeful smile.

“Please?” Jane threw in, mimicking Marcus’ position.

“Can’t guarantee you won’t be missin’ some candy. I saw someone throw in some M&M’s and tootsie rolls.”

Which is how they came to the decision they were going to carry their candy around while they ran.

“Oh, look at that! The safari explorer and the exotic bird. How cute! I’m sure the wife came up with that one.”

Rio looked over to see a woman standing next to him just as she gave him a wink.

Another ‘neighborhood watch’ mom.

Rio suppressed a groan, letting his eyes wander back to them and trying not to give the woman any more reason to interact with him.

“Waiting on older kids to get out of the haunted house?”

She was going to pry a conversation out of him, even if it killed her, wasn’t she? What was with these suburban moms?

“Yup,” Rio answered.

“Yeah, I’m waiting on mine too. They say that they’re old enough to not get scared, but I don’t know.” She shook her head, crossing her arms and staring at the haunted house. “They just don’t understand how damaging this can be to their developing minds. But I let them because ‘but Mom, it’s Halloween!’” More shaking of her head. “Don’t tell them, but I actually considered starting a petition to stop this family from putting up the haunted house this year.”

Finally, she caught his attention. But only because Rio wanted to look into the face of a woman who would actually start a petition over something

He wondered for half a second if Beth ever started a petition over something like this. Then he remembered seeing her drilling that stop sign up. Nah, his Elizabeth was a woman of action that wasn’t going to wait around on no petition.

“By the way, you’re _really_ nailing this down,” she said as she gestured with her hand to his outfit.

But this was a new development. Did she really think this was his costume? His normal clothes, the way the way he looked _every single damn day_. Well, except for Christmas, but he wasn’t about to bring _that_ up.

“And I mean, the detail on that!” She gestured towards his neck this time. “What’s the name of the makeup artist?”

Rio would've laughed if this woman wasn't being so serious. This was going to be the _last_ time he brought the kids out here for trick-or-treating. Next year, he was going to take all of them out to the neighborhoods he normally took Marcus too.

Rio didn’t linger on the fact that he was already planning on taking the Boland kids again next year.

Thankfully, Emma, Danny, and Kenny came bounding out of the haunted house, laughing and smiling, saving him from having to listen to this woman. Even in the dark though, Rio could tell their faces were paler than normal. They were definitely putting up a brave front.

He waved at them, letting them know where he was. He pushed himself up off the tree and glanced over at the woman. She was watching the three come out.

“You know, I think I actually got his business card,” Rio said, finally saying more than one word to her. He reached for his wallet and pulled out a business card. He handed it to her and started walking away to meet up with the rest of the kids.

“Oh, thanks so…wait, this says ‘tattoo artist’…?”

But Rio was done with the conversation, walking with the kids again and smirking as he knew she was spluttering and gaping as she finally connected the dots.

* * *

When they finally came back to the Boland home, they went straight inside, not even bothering to knock.

And Rio was done with his duty. He walked them around the neighborhood, made sure they didn’t run off into the street without looking both ways, and prevented them from eating more than five pieces of candy.

He and Marcus could go home now.

But once Kenny opened the door, the kids all ran in. Including Marcus.

And maybe Rio wasn't ready to go home just yet either.

Rio walked in after them, closing the front door behind him.

He followed the noise into the kitchen, the kids encircling Beth as she rolled out some dough on the island. Rio didn’t think they were ever going to learn to not all speak at once.

He did make a note to make sure Marcus understood to wait his turn to talk. Because right now, he was right there with them, his voice mingling in with the Boland's.

Yet somehow, Beth seemed to be paying attention to every single conversation.

“One at a time, one at a time!” Beth said, sprinkling more flour over the dough and continuing to roll it out.

Nah, she was just really good at pretending to be paying attention then.

Beth didn’t seem to realize he had come in. Even though Marcus was basically standing in front of her.

Rio leaned against the wall, watching Beth splitting her attention from whatever pastry she was making to whichever child was currently talking.

She nodded along, laughing and smiling, asking questions at the appropriate time. But he did notice her occasionally glance back to the time on the microwave and as they continued talking, her look of wanting to interrupt kept growing.

After all five (yes, he included Marcus in this too) shared at least two stories each, Rio clapped his hands and grabbed their attention. “Come on, y’all know the drill. Time to get ready for bed.”

Beth finally looked at him, her mouth slightly open at registering the fact that he had been there this entire time.

As per the usual, complaints rose up, about it being the weekend and they didn’t have to get up early and couldn’t they just stay up and watch old scary movies and eat more candy.

“Nope.” Rio popped the ‘p’ loudly. “Go on, get up there and get ready for bed.” He approached them and one by one, began herding them out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

“But since Kenny’s going to shower first, can I show Marcus my doll house?”

Rio looked down at Jane, then glanced over at Marcus, who was making a face and so obviously didn’t want to see her doll house.

But Rio wanted to talk with Beth. “Yeah, that’s fine. Go on, Marcus.”

Jane led him upstairs, talking animatedly and Marcus following half-heartedly behind.

Rio leaned against the fridge, careful not to misplace any artwork or report cards held up by the magnets. “So this what you had planned?”

Beth nodded, wiping her hands on her apron to get rid of the flour residue as she started placing the cookies on a cookie sheet. “There’s a bake sale tomorrow at the school. I don’t know who the hell decided it was a good idea to have the day right after Halloween.”

“And I don’t know who thought it was a good idea to sign up for it,” Rio said with a teasing smirk.

Beth looked up at him with a half-hearted glare before grabbing the cookie sheet and sticking it in the oven.

And as soon as she closed the oven door, she heard screaming and yelling coming from upstairs. She closed her eyes, took a deep breath, and looked at the mess in the kitchen then up the stairs.

“I got it,” Rio said, already rolling up his sleeves and gathering the dirty bowls.

“You don’t-“

But then there was another particularly loud yell and Danny yelling. “I’m going to get you back Emma!”

“Sounds like it’s about to get violent.”

“They wouldn’t.”

Something fell to the ground.

Rio turned on the faucet. “Sure ‘bout that?”

Beth huffed before hurrying up the stairs. “Danny! Emma!”

He washed dishes, put away the ingredients, pulled out the cookies to cool down and stuck in the other cookie sheet. And by the time he was wiping down the counter after pulling out the second batch of cookies, Beth finally came down.

She took one look at the clean kitchen, the cookies (all accounted for) cooling on the counter, and Rio standing there as if that’s where he belonged.

And maybe it was where he belonged.

“Everything good?” Rio asked as he dried his hands off with a kitchen towel.

She swallowed hard as she saw him put it back where it belonged, hanging on the oven door handle as if it had never been moved.

She nodded, clearing her thoughts at the same time. “Thank you so much. I…I don’t know what I would’ve done if you hadn’t shown up.”

Rio pursed his lips and shook his head. "Nah, you know exactly what you would've done."

Beth shifted her weight from foot to foot, uncomfortable with the direction of this conversation.

"You would've still taken them out, maybe even let them indulge a little more with the candy and a scary movie. Then you would've started all your baking, stayin' up until what? Two, three in the mornin'? Then you'd wake up three hours later to get everyone ready to head out to this bake sale."

Beth blew out a heavy sigh. "Yeah, well, it's not the first time I'd lose a night of sleep because of the kids."

"No. You mean because of _him_."

Beth didn't meet his gaze.

Rio shook his head, taking a deep breath. “You can’t let him keep doing that.” He didn’t mean to, but his voice came out as low growl.

Beth blew out a deep breath. She didn’t say anything.

“Did he tell you what his ‘emergency’ was? Or did he just say ‘it’s really important.’”

“I did try-“

“Ain’t good enough. And you _know_ it.” Rio shook his head, pushing up off the sink to walk towards her. “You gotta work with him the way you do the kids. Set your limits or else he’s gonna keep on walking all over you.”

Beth sighed, pulling out one of the bar stools to sit down. “He said he didn’t want this to get messy.”

“Someone’s gotta tell you then that separating with kids is _always_ gonna be messy. You just gotta make sure he’s willin’ to make it easier on the kids as much as you are.”

“He says he is though.”

Rio raised an eyebrow. “Tonight seem like it?”

She let out a small frustrated huff. Not at him though. At Dean. At herself. At this stupid fall bake sale that she signed up for.

“And you shouldn’t argue in front of the kids. That shit ain’t healthy for them.”

Beth agreed with that. And for the most part, they did seem able to contain most arguments away from the kids. But somehow she had missed that Danny was the only one downstairs while the rest of the kids were upstairs still getting their costumes on.

“How do you do it?” Beth finally asked.

“Do what?”

“With you and Marcus’ mom. How did you do it?”

Rio gave a wry smile. “Shit ton of yellin’.”

Beth looked back at him with a small smile of her own.

Rio sat down on the stool next to her, turning to face her completely. His knee lightly brushed against her thigh. He saw her mouth open a little to suck in a quiet breath. “You’re doin’ a good job with those kids, Elizabeth,” he said, reaching over and pushing a strand of hair out of her face. "And I know you. I know you're gonna make this work for those kids."

He could see the tips of her ears reddening. “Thank you,” she said softly. “For everything.”

For a second, neither of them moved. And he was going to wait. Because he knew she had to be the one to move first.

The next second, her lips were on his, a kiss mirroring the first one they shared. Soft, hesitant, tired, and…

Rio didn’t want to think about whatever else might be in the kiss.

“Mommy! Can Marcus spend the night?”

Beth pulled away so quickly, Rio had to grab her arm to steady her on the stool.

They looked to Marcus and Jane who were running down the stairs, Jane _and_ Marcus freshly showered and wearing their matching pajamas again.

“Uh, I…” Beth swallowed hard, quickly standing and placing distance between her and Rio. She wiped her hands on her pants and refused to look at him. “Well, you have to ask Rio first.”

Rio stood, closing the distance between them again and smirking as he saw Beth trying so hard to _not_ look at him.

“Can he, Rio?” Jane asked, turning her big blue eyes at him. She pouted her lips and tilted her head and she looked just like her mother.

So much so, he found it hard to even consider saying no to her.

Marcus went up to Rio and hugged his legs, tilting his head all the way back to look up at Rio. “Please Daddy?”

Marcus though? He had six years of practice learning how to say no when he pouted his lips and opened his eyes widely and latched on to his legs, pretending to hug him just because he loved his dad, but really was only trying to convince him to say yes.

“Nah,” Rio said as he shook his head. “You got baseball practice tomorrow mornin’, remember? And what's goin' on here? You showerin' in other people's homes now?"

“Aw, but Daddy!”

“He already has his twin pajamas on!”

But Rio kept shaking his head. “Answer’s no, darlin’.”

Beth cleared her throat. “Rio said no Jane. No means no.”

Both Jane and Marcus let out soft whines and the beginning of protests rose up, but Rio put an end to it as he pulled Marcus away from him and turned him around. “Go on, go get your stuff so we can head out.”

Dejectedly, he and Jane went back upstairs.

“Marcus really is welcome to spend the night whenever.” Beth finally turned to look at him, taking a couple steps back to put distance between them again. “He kind of just…fits right in.”

“What if I wanna spend the night though, especially when there’s no kids around? Am I welcome whenever?” He took three steps towards her, invading her personal space completely, but she didn’t back away. “Do I just…fit right in too?”

Her face immediately flushed and she let out heavy breath.

Rio licked his lips, brushing hair out of her face again.

Then Jane and Marcus came down the stairs again, this time followed by the rest of the kids since they found out Rio was leaving.

Rio was the one to step away, turning all his attention to the kids, answering their questions of when was he coming back and why did they have to leave already and what if they stayed over to watch a scary movie?

But he finally managed to move on to the goodbyes, giving them fist bumps or hugs, whichever they preferred, and Jane gave her mandatory hug and kiss on his cheek and kiss for Johnny.

Danny gave him a hug too, which surprised Rio a little. Especially since his arms were wrapped tighter than usual around his waist.

“Thank you for coming,” he whispered.

Rio bent down as soon as Danny let go. “Anytime you call me because you need somethin’, I will _always_ do my best to do what I can. Yeah?”

Danny nodded, giving Rio a watery smile and sniffing loudly.

Rio stood back up and saw Beth’s eyes on him. There was so much emotion in those eyes.

He knew she was going to have a hard time going to sleep tonight.

And if he was being honest, so was he.

“Good night, Elizabeth,” Rio said softly, walking out of the house with Marcus in tow, still wearing the twin pajamas and promising to bring it back the next time he came over.

For the first half of the drive, Marcus talked non-stop. The games they played, the candy he got, what he was going to dress up as next year, what Rio should dress up as next year, the things he and the Boland kids were going to do when he finally got to sleep over.

Rio paid apt attention. Because he didn’t want to be in his thoughts at the moment.

But then Marcus’ words started tapering off and he spoke slower and softer. Rio looked into the rear view mirror as they were just minutes away from getting back to the apartment.

Marcus was out cold.

He turned up the radio a little, focusing on the sound of soft snare drums and saxophones. He had to put those thoughts out of his mind at least until he got Marcus in bed.

Marcus didn’t wake up when Rio parked. Nor when he unbuckled him out of his seat or carried him up the stairs to their apartment. Not until Rio laid him down in his bed did Marcus finally stir a little.

He blinked a few times, looking at Rio through half-awake eyes. “Daddy?"

“Go back to sleep.” Rio brushed his hand across the top of Marcus’ head before pressing a kiss to his forehead.

Marcus closed his eyes again and wiggled a little under the covers until he found the perfect spot.

Rio started for the door, but Marcus’ voice stopped him again.

“Daddy?”

Rio looked at him, Marcus’ eyes open halfway again. “You need somethin’?”

“Why would you wanna spend the night with Miss Lizbeth without any of us?” He rubbed his eyes as his brow furrowed. “That’d be really boring. What would you even do?”

Rio held back a laugh, knowing that would only make Marcus wake up even more. “Nothin’ you need to worry about. Now go to sleep.”

**Author's Note:**

> Send me prompts: nachocheese-itsmycheese.tumblr.com


End file.
